FRESH from his victory in the Great Scottish run the Ethiopian runner will lead a star-studded elite field that includes Olympic hero Mo Farah.

Haile Gebrselassie won the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow in a record breaking time of 61 minutes and 9 seconds.

HAILE GEBRSELASSIE will pace a world record attempt at April's Virgin Money London Marathon.

The Ethiopian great, 40, has been enlisted to take a loaded men's elite field, including debutant Mo Farah, to the 30 kilometres mark at world-record speed on April 13.

Kenya's Wilson Kipsang, who will be perhaps Farah's biggest threat, set the current all-time mark of two hours, three minutes and 23 seconds at last September's Berlin Marathon.

London race director Hugh Brasher said: "We are delighted to announce that Haile Gebrselassie has agreed to run as a pacemaker in this year's race.

"Haile is an icon of distance running, a man who has broken 27 world records on the track and road during his long and brilliant career, and we can't think of anyone better to set our elite men up for a crack at the world marathon record.

"Everyone knows how difficult it is to break the world record on London's course, especially with such a competitive field, but with Haile pacing and four of the fastest marathon runners in history in the race, there's a real chance we will see something special."

Also in the field are reigning London champion Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia, Ugandan world and Olympic gold medallist Stephen Kiprotich, and Kenyan course record holder Emmanuel Mutai, while 18-year-old Ethiopian Tsegaye Mekonnen, the winner of the Dubai Marathon in January, has been added to the line-up.

Gebrselassie won two Olympic and four World Championship gold medals at 10,000m and twice broke the marathon world record. This will be the first time he has run as a pacemaker in a top-class international race.

He is familiar with the course, having run the London Marathon three times as a competitor, with third place his best finish in 2002. Moroccan Khalid Khannouchi won it that year in a then world record 2hrs 05 mins 38secs, the last time the record was set in the capital.

World record pace this time would mean Gebrselassie taking the leading men through halfway in around one hour and one and a half minutes and 30km in close to 1h 28m.

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THE final part of our review of the year in sport features Champions League heartache for two Glasgow sides, a record breaking Great Scottish Run and Sebastian Vettel lifting his fourth F1 championship.